STRANGE THINGS ARE HAPPENING is the blog for THEE PSYCHEDELICATESSEN.
We are always happy to be sent stuff to listen to and write about (we would prefer physical copies of singles/EPs/albums but we do realise that in some cases it is just not practical).
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Sunday, 3 January 2016

SULA BASSANA – SHIPWRECKED (Sulatron Records LP, CD).

New for 2016 on Sulatron Records is a stunning album of really far out kosmische musik from Sula Bassana. Shipwrecked has been created by using a whole host of vintage
analogue synths, primitive drum machines and the other instruments that Sula
has accumulated over the decades………………evoking the sounds of the 70s/early 80s
pioneers such as Cluster, Klaus Schulze, Harmonia, Conny Plank and Kraftwerk,
Michael Bundt, Popol Vuh, the early kosmische sounds of Tangerine Dream,
spilling over into the primal post-punk electronica of Cabaret Voltaire and
Throbbing Gristle. It’s a record from an age before computer music, full of
electronic drones, pulsing drum machines, sweeping soundscapes, throbbing
sequencers and dreamy, spiraling synthesizers that has both a rhythmically
intense brutality and pure transcendental serenity.

The driving machine rhythms of ‘Moonbase Alpha Alpha’ and ‘Shushi Express’ open Shipwrecked, both
trancelike Kraftwerkesque shards of surging electronica informed by Krautrock
and inspired by the pulsing synths and drum machines of Moroder. With the
intensity of Neu! but with a lightness of touch from early 90s Ambient soundscaping,
both tracks have a single minded, thrilling relentlessness that is simply magnificent.
‘No Time : No Eternity’ has a much darker, haunting vibe with a sense of
foreboding, it is a stark, primitive electronic landscape as if soundtracking a barren future world at the far end of the galaxy imagined by the writers of the old Astounding Tales comics. With the title of the track‘Planeta Bur’ taken from an old Russian Science Fiction film, much of Shipwrecked feels like it has
been written as a soundtrack to an imaginary 60s/70s Sci-Fi movie as there is very much the sense of this
having a central theme and concept as all the tracks flow almost seamlessly into one
another, giving the album a feeling of continuity. The title track is an exquisite sweeping soundscape very much in
mould of classic Popol Vuh which eases into the wonderfully tranquil ‘No Way’
to close the album. Sula Bassana has taken essence of the 70s proto Space Rock and transposed it into the now, channeling the past to make a record that does not feel out of place in 2016. Beautifully constructed, Shipwrecked is a fantastic record full of the spirit of
1970s classic kosmische musik and a must listen for fans of the ground breaking
German bands from that decade.

Shipwrecked is due for
release 12/02/2016 and can be pre-ordered from the Sulatron Records website.
Available on marbled vinyl as a limited edition run of 500 copies and also on CD. We
really recommend that you give this album a listen it really is a magnificent
record.